Step 1: Clearance Sales

I was looking for a unit for my tv and amps for surround sound . I had a crappy little corner unit that simply wasn't big enuf for all my equipment.
I was looking for a cheep replacement in sales an auctions but came up with nothing suitable.
I then went to a clearance sale at a local furniture store and found a nice looking oak unit with some damage to all the doors the price tag on it was an astonishing £1600 but since there was considerable damage to it I simply asked for a price they would be happy to let let it go for I got a response of £100 if you take it away today? I just about had the guys hand off there was more than £100 worth of oak there.!

Step 2: Moving the Beast

I clearly never thought this would be so heavy and the main body of the unit was so solid it was a real struggle for 4 big guys to get it in my people carrier!! After it was in I went and got all the 4 damaged doors that were in bits and threw them in too. the trip home was only 7 miles but thankfully it was a rare dry day in Scotland as only just over half the unit fitted in the car so the boot was wide open for the short journey!

When I got it home there was only me and my dad to get it out it was a struggle to say the least there are only two small step to get it in the front door but getting it in was an issue we got one end in and put the two legs on a towel so we could slide it in with both of us at one end. The good old laminate flooring made it Easier than lifting it to the living room it just slid into place.

Step 3: Repurposing

I decided that I would manage to get two full doors out of the broken bits and they pretty much just needed some glue and and some clamps to hold them together!
Two doors ready to reattach with the hinges they were originally fitted with so that was easy

The other side of the unit which was also
meant to have doors was going to be more of a challenge ,as I never had enuf wood left from the broken doors so found an old oak table with no legs at a furniture auction it was round but of similar shade and colour as the unit all I had to do was get three shelves out of it.
These shelves didn't have to be full depth of the unit because I wanted space for wires and plugs there's lots u will see them later)

I originally had a 5.1 amp an internet tv box and a DVD player to fit in this side so had a spare shelf on the bottom then I got a second 400w 2channel amp to run two subs behind each couch that ended up on the bottom shelf but that didn't last long there the (the dog likes to sleep in front of the amp probably the heat that they make ) but when he got up quickly he would sometimes catch the volume and crank it up so the subs would be booming all of a sudden not good late at night!
The DVD player and tv box fitted on one shelf quite nicely so got both the amps up a shelf this created its own issues with all 4 devices so tightly packed between shelves it all gets real hot so ventilation and air movement was next .

Step 4: Cooling the Media

I bought a laptop cooler with a 7" fan on the base of it I removed the fan and screwed it to the inside of the unit up top to push all the hot air out. This was perfect all I needed was a small bit of air movement and everything stays reasonably cool well within normal operating temperatures.
I also put a 4" hole in the back bottom corner this was mostly for all the wiring but also let's cool air to get in to the shelving area.

I decided to put a 4 way power bar in the base of the shelving unit to save loads of ac cables running with all the audio leads luckily most of them were speaker cables and not signal cables most of them are optical anyway so interference isn't too much of an issue .

Step 5: Finishing Touches

Once I had all the shelves cut from the round oak table I decided to give them a few coats of Danish oil to bring colour and sheen to the wood and I think they turned out perfectly.

All that was needed now was a final wiring check and wire all 7 full range speakers and the two subs then all the media hdmi or optical or both on some there are bundles of wires and one day I will get round to making it look perfect but for now it is at least wired and sounding amazing?

Step 6: Hope to See Some Other Media Units

This was realistically a one off and to get a unit like this for a bargain and a table for practically free to complete the unit was a rare occurrence but I do hope others out there bide there time to wait on a steal of a buy or end up with something not suitable for purpose I hope to see more people getting bargains and think myself lucky to own such a beast of a unit!

Step 7: Going to Attempt Wire Tidying

I picked up a 6 way power bar at good old lidl and I'm going to swap it out for the four way so I can have the tv and fan all on the same line without using a power block on an extension (that's not too good to do certainly not the done thing)

I want to sort all the clutters of wires all over the place in to two maybe three bundles
1: mains AC cables
2: signal and line in audio and visual
3: and then possibly speaker wires if they don't go with the signal wires!

I have not had any issues so far with interference from AC wire yet but it's getting more and more crowded back there and something needs done will update once I'm finished

The tidying of many wires was a bit of a task!! but I have done the best I could with the position of some of the gear could do with a longer cat5 cable to the tv box from the router and a longer HDMI for the amp to the tv but apart from that all is good.!

I will need to add a switch for the fan as it is on all the time just now and needs turned off at the wall at night there is also a second fan in the bass amp that could also be wired to this for extra air movement!